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Lloyd’s wants government to share data on cyber attacks

Lloyd’s of London is urging the UK government to share data on cyber-attacks as the industry braces for stricter data protection rules in the European Union (EU).

Speaking to the Financial Times, Lloyd’s CEO Inga Beale sought better cooperation with the government ahead of the implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation in May 2018.

The upcoming measure will require businesses to report details of cyber-attacks to the authorities. According to the Financial Times, Beale is hoping that the industry can use “anonymised versions” of the company reports to improve insurance pricing.

Beale also lamented that the lack of accessible data on past cyber-attacks has become a problem for insurance companies that want to offer cyber coverage.

“We’d love to have the data to build up a fair pricing model,” the Financial Times quoted Beale as saying. “We’d very much like to be able to work with the government in 2018 and beyond to get a flavour of the types of breaches and the cost of them.”

According to Beale, Lloyd’s introduced 15 new cyber products in 2015. The specialist insurance market now covers the costs of reporting attacks, regulatory expenses, business interruption losses and liability for third-party costs.

Lloyd’s policies also now cover lost sales resulting from reputational damage caused by cyber-attacks, Beale added.

“This is an opportunity [for the insurance industry] to build trust and prove that it can play the role we say it should,” Beale told the Financial Times.

In an interview with the Nikkei Asian Review, Beale said the global economy is losing US$500 billion every year due to cybercrimes.

“That’s how much it is costing economies and businesses across the world and it’s going one way only, and that’s up,” she told the publication.

“What we anticipate is a rapid increase in demand for cyber insurance as more and more businesses around the world understand the risk they are facing.”

Since the referendum on 23 June 2016, there has been a lot of uncertainty in many sectors, but for the UK's insurance and long-term savings industry, the largest in the EU and third largest worldwide, the shockwaves are likely to be felt for some time